The present invention relates to dentistry in general, and more particularly to a dental retaining splint for the reinforcement and retention of mobile dentition in the mouth, and to the method for securing the splint to the dentition.
The use of splint structure disposed along the lingual surfaces of anterior teeth for reinforcing natural teeth is well known in the art. However, the formation of such prior art splints and there application are accompanied by serious limitations, such as the requirement that the securing pins for the splint structure must be disposed in horizontal parallelism. As a consequence, it has been found to be impractical, if not impossible, to apply such prior art splints to other than the anterior teeth, where it is necessary to utilize involved and complicated procedures in the preparation of the teeth and to utilize special equipment in order to assure the required horizontal parallelism. This procedure, from the point of view of the dentist, has been involved and time consuming and also is a source of considerable discomfort to the patient.
A procedure for overcoming the above-mentioned prior art problems is disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,348,311. However, this patented procedure involves forming apertures in the teeth, forming an impression of the involved dental area, forming a cast model from the impression including the apertures, inserting a threaded pin through the apertures in cast model, putting a threaded nut on the pin, then forming a wax-up of the desired splint and casting out a metal splint body by the lost wax process whereby the nuts are encased in the metal splint body, and finally disposing the splint body against the facial surfaces of the involved teeth and securing the splint body in place by means of a screw-threaded body into the nut encased in the splint. It is noted, that this patented procedure is not readily applied to the occlusal surfaces of the posterior teeth.
A dental retaining splint to further overcome the aforementioned prior art problems is disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,487,545. This patented splint includes a band of dental metal provided with a plurality of spaced, centrally located elongated apertures along its longitudinal dimension; and securing means having a head portion and a self-threading shank portion, where each shank portion is inserted through one aperture and is self-threaded into the tooth to secure the splint band thereto, with the head portion retaining the splint band in position on the tooth being reinforced thereby. This patented splint does not provide a high degree of resistance to vertical and horizontal loading which is required in dental splinting applications. Furthermore, the positioning of the self-threading securing means does not provide for specific locations to avoid the hazzards relative to root perforation of pulpal involvement. Furthermore, for proper securement, more than one securing means may be required to be self-threaded into one tooth.